10th, 11th & 12th Outage...

Beginning at 4.45 am, we've been having constant outages till the

present time, i.e. 3.30 pm! How many more are still to come, only KPLC
can tell us .........., IF, they know!

Considering we had a very horrible maintenance within weeks of a
previous one equally nasty, these continuous outages are becoming highly
irritating and frustrating.

There seems to be something very suspicious going on at KPLC with
regards to the outages in Nyali. Whenever one asks for a reason, they
give a blanket word 'breakdown' as their excuse. Breakdown of what? Most
likely a breakdown of professionalism, accountability, ethics, etc. I
can not think of any other valid enough excuse for these people's
'dis-service'.

They are charging us more than enough every month is extremely hiked up
bills despite their supposed 26% 'reduction'. It is not good enough when
you consider the useless and unpredictable 'service' that they render.

I wish, and I'm sure many others do, too, that KPLC were not the only
power suppliers in this country!

Egyptian Ahmadis

It is with great regret that the 12 Egyptian Ahmadis who have been
arrested and jailed since over a month have still not been released.

Their only 'fault' it seems is that they are Ahmadi Muslims. Because, no
reason has been forthcoming as to their arrest and subsequent
incarceration. Why are they still in prison?

Which prison/s are they being held in? Are they all in one prison or in
different ones? For they are from all over the country.

Have they been allowed to hire a lawyer and is one allowed to visit them?

What about their families? Are the families allowed to visit them? Or
are they even aware of where their fathers, brothers, uncles, etc., are
being held? What condition are they in?

It is now over a month since they have been arrested and imprisoned,
yet, there is no news of their fate?

The community elders have tried to find out to no avail.

8th & 9th outages....

Last night, after I had written my 7th outage email, we had another one

in the night at around 9.25 pm which lasted for about 10 to 15 minutes.
This was bad enough.

This morning, it went off again at 9.15 am and it seems that it was one
of their 'scheduled' maintenance. This happened barely 20 days after
another of their 'planned' maintenances on the 5/5/10. Why is KPLC
having more than one maintenance in one month? Is their work so shoddy
in the first place that they need to constantly inconvenience people?

And to add insult to injury, they don't stick to their scheduled times
of 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Today the power did not return till 6.30 pm! The
last maintenance had resulted in the power going off and on the whole
day and it didn't come back properly till after 8.30 pm!

In fact, this time, again, they would not answer their phones including
the emergency lines after 5.00 pm. Why?

Can anybody in KPLC please tell me why when a Kisauni line has a
problem, areas all the way into Tudor and all of Nyali have to suffer
the consequences? Because, that is what is supposed to have been
'maintained' the whole to day to the detriment of all of the above
mentioned areas.

Like most Kenyans, KPLC seems to have a lackadaisical attitude towards
time keeping. This country, it seems, has a chronic deficiency regarding
time. Very few people have any respect for keeping time and usually use
the excuse of the phrase, 'there's no hurry in Africa', for their
lateness. It's more like a typical 'banana republic' definition. It is
no wonder that we have not progressed much since our supposed
independence and never will with such an attitude.

There's no sense of responsibility, anywhere, unfortunately, nor
patriotism. Whatever, there is, is quite misplaced, in fact.

Emailing: The water at our estate gate, The smaller gate with the stepping stones, Water, water, everywhere..., The extent of the flooded road outside the gate, People who have to deal with the flooded road everytime it pours!, Despite stepping on the sto

The road leading off the main Nyali road to Umoja estate has been ruined by a combination of heavy vehicles, shoddy road building, no proper drainage and no legislation or rather, no practical application of the law.

Most roads are not built to take heavy traffic and with a lot of construction going on in the neighbourhood, there are countless trucks, water tankers, etc., using this road. Contractors can't be bothered about repairing what their vehicles have damaged nor does our equally incompetent Council, do anything much about the drainage problem.

About a month and a half ago, a gang from the Council showed up to clear a drainage hole and put a cover on it. Why they needed so many of them to fix one drain is anybody's guess, but, that's the way our Council works....., or doesn't. Since that day, nobody has showed up again to see the condition of the road. It has deteriorated and their drainage is not working, either.

We believe a number of complaints have gone to the Council whose responsibility it is to maintain and build this road, but, knowing our Council, they prefer to ignore complaints till one of them is involved in getting hurt due to their negligence or they are paid a bribe.

I also wonder how many millions our government is collecting every single day in fuel and road levy? Where are all the millions going? There are very few roads being built in Coast Province and Mombasa in particular, none! And why isn't there somebody overseeing the quality of the roads that are built or re-carpeted as well as the kind of drainage systems built with them, so that, the roads will not be ruined everytime we get torrential rains? What kind of shoddy workmanship do the powers that be allow?

The following are the comments for each picture, attached...

The water at our estate gate
Since the rainy season has started, the access road leading to our estate gets so flooded that it needs these pictures to bring home the agony of the residents and all the others who use this road. Especially the ones on foot.

The smaller gate with the stepping stones
Somebody has been good enough to put stepping stones for people to avoid walking in flood water.

Water, water, everywhere...
This is the potential rice field...

The extent of the flooded road outside the gate
The flooding goes beyond our gate which most people call the 'slum' area. This is where the majority of the poor and downtrodden live. They do not own cars nor does public transport go this far in. Therefore, these people have to deal with having to negotiate the flooding everytime it rains heavily.

People who have to deal with the flooded road everytime it pours!
While these people try to step on stones from the broken road, there is still the danger of them stepping into potholes and falling, injuring themselves. This, over and above ruining their clean clothes and imagine the mess they must put up with when they eventually get to wherever they are going. The school children, some of whom are very small also have to deal with the same things as the adults and they are worse off since they are small.

Despite stepping on the stones, this poor man still gets soaked!
The stones on which people can step to avoid the water, but, when it is raining, one just can't avoid getting drenched.

7th outage....

This morning, while most people were either at their place of work or on
their way, there, the power went off, yet again, in Nyali.

Ringing KPLC got a sleepy response and the female at the other end took
sometime getting her wits about her and this was at 7.55 am! Maybe, she
didn't sleep well last night....?!

While the outages have reduced considerably, it is not good enough. Does
it mean that everytime it rains heavily, we are going to miss power?

For KPLC's information, when these outages happen in a place where it is
dark, yes even during the day, they can cause accidents when sight
impaired people can get hurt. Who would be responsible for any injuries,
so caused? Would KPLC be willing to pay expenses?

Please, improve your services.

An affordable roof.....

While there is a kind of building boom going on all over the country, it is highly unlikely that this will result in fewer slums.

First, all these houses coming up will be extremely expensive for the average Kenyan since the materials involved are expensive to come by.

Second, not all of these buildings have been officially, without payment of a hefty bribe, been passed by the respective local authority. Hardly any have environment friendly plans, e.g. where maximum use has been made of natural light. This would translate into using less electricity even during daytime. In fact, most buildings including houses have to use artificial light since they are not built with this in mind and plan.

Third, no thought has been given to the well being of children and where they would play. There are very few estates which provide a play area for children in this country while we have one of the biggest populations of children. They outnumber adults! Yet, our town planners give not a thought to this helpless majority.

Fourth, talking about the majority - they will not be able to afford the housing boom going on since it's beyond their financial reach.

Therefore, why doesn't the relevant Ministry and authorities, build pre-fabricated housing which is a lot cheaper, faster and does not take forever to put up? It is also environment friendly.

Now, to do this, of course, there has to be town planning involved which our 'officialdom' is very reluctant in doing. What with all the grabbing, not just of land but, money, too! There is no end to their selfishness.

In fact, pre-fabricated housing, etc., would put an end to piles of stones, sand and cement, etc., which gets in the way of pedestrians and other wayfarers, including vehicles.

Is anybody listening out there?

Your 'service'

Since yesterday morning, I've ordered a couple to things from 'New' KCC,

but, they have not been delivered till now. Why?

I've called a number of people who deal with deliveries - Mr. Dancan,
0720473535, to whom I gave the order and he assured me that it would
delivered in 2 hours! This was yesterday at 8.15 am. When the two hours
were past, I called him again and again and again all through the day,
but, he seemed to be helpless (till this morning), in getting the job done.

But, before I go on I also called a Mr. Mburu - 0722316479 who is now
the manager in Mombasa. Somebody, who claimed that he was not Mr. Mburu,
but, refused to give me his name answered this number and then hung up.
Subsequent calls were disconnected. So, out of desperation, I called Mr.
Opudo who used to be the manager in Mombasa before he was transferred to
Nairobi. He, too, tried calling Mombasa's contacts, but, could not, I think.

Now, to go on with my misadventures regarding NEW KCC... All through the
day, yesterday, I kept calling Mr. Dancan, who seemed to be helpless in
doing anything about getting my orders to me.

So, this morning, I called him, again, to be given another number of a
person called Ogolla - 0724777489, who, he said was in-charge of
deliveries in my area (Nyali). Well, I called this number and found that
I already had it on my phone under the name of John! This John told me
that he was on his way and would show up in about an hour's time, i.e.
at about 11.00 am. When he did not, I called again, and this time I was
told that he was going to take only a few minutes since he was already
on Nyali bridge. He did not show up in those few minutes, of course.

After 12.00 pm, I called him, yet again, only to be told that he was
getting directions from somebody to my place. He never showed up. None
of these people seemed to take into account that my order was costing me
a huge amount in phone bills.

I eventually got my order delivered at 1.00 pm by a guy called George
who apologized profusely for the extreme delay and has given me his
number and promised that I should call him next time and he will not
only answer his phone but make sure that my order is delivered promptly
at the stated time.

While NEW KCC might have changed their name and added 'new' to it, there
seems to be very little new about their attitude to customers. They have
a problem keeping time and their word. Can they please change that, too?

Their various fixed line numbers at their website are all either out of
order or for some reason not working. Both Nairobi's and Mombasa's.

4th, 5th & 6th outage

It has been a great novelty in our area of Nyali to have had no outages

till last night, since the last time I wrote - the 3rd outage. What
utter relief!

But, this does not mean that the whole of the north coast and other
Nyali areas further afield had this reprieve. They have continued to
have their outages.

Of course, it was too good to be true. For, at about 10.30 pm last
night, the lights suddenly went off and the surprising thing, this time
round was that when I rang one of the emergency numbers, it was quite
promptly answered. Also, the female there, had very ready information at
hand considering that I rang within minutes of the outage. She told me
that some power pole in Kisauni had caught fire and that the power would
be back within half an hour. This too was a novelty. The fact that not
only was the emergency number promptly picked up, but, she knew what I
was talking about and also gave me the reason and the approximate time
the power would be restored. Another relief!

But, comes daylight and the power went off, again, at around 9.30 am.
Another phone call, which again, got a prompt response and the guy at
the other end told me that they were fixing something around Kisauni and
it would be back. In fact, while I was talking to him, it came back. He
also mentioned that the outage last night was because of some problem at
Kipevu. Now, this is contradictory information as I was told that the
half hour outage last night was due to a power pole having caught fire.
Who was right?

Another novelty - he also told me that after about 2 hours when they
finished their work at that site, we would again, experience a few
minutes of outage when they restored supply everywhere.

True to their word, the power went off again, for about 5 minutes and
has been steady, since.

I hope and pray that the KPLC will continue to improve on their services
and be as quick and prompt when and if the power goes off. And we hope
that the remaining areas of Nyali and further afield will have the same
kind of experiences as us who are around Cinemax.

Of course, I'll continue counting....

3rd outage

My informants, i.e. my neighbours, while I was out, told me that the

power went off yet, again, at around 3.45 pm and came back after about
15 minutes!

As I have written earlier, I'm going to log every outage, everytime we
have one for KPLC to realize how many times they make us suffer and mess
things up. While this particular outage was, one would think, 'only' for
15 minutes, it can do untold damage if one is baking something for
example. Anyway, when the power goes off, we never know how long it will
be gone for. Even when our phones are answered by KPLC (very rare, these
days), they do not necessarily keep the times they tell us it will
return even if they know, which most of the times, they don't.

So, as far as the general power consuming public is concerned, whatever
it is that they were doing when it went off, it all goes to waste. This
is the damage and wastage that these persistent outages lead to. In
these times of economic hardship, KPLC, is continuously adding salt to
festering wounds. And they don't seem to care in the least and continue
to increase their tariffs to unbelievable amounts. That is all that they
care about, it would seem.

Starting to count..... 2nd Outage

The power went off yet, again, this morning at about 11.30 am and again,

phones were not answered. When one eventually was, a sleepy voice did
so, in a very bored manner. I think the KPLC should now apply for
toll-free numbers, considering their rising costs in bills and equally
rising cost of telephones, too.

In fact, everything is going up, except people's salaries and the cost
of living in this country with the amenities of 'civilization', is
slowly going beyond the hands of the average citizen. Our horrible and
unaccountable service providers including the politicians, it seems are
having it all, instead. The very people (wananchi), they are supposed to
'serve' are the ones suffering at these people's hands!

I have now, started a count on the number of outages we suffer, even in
a day and for how long, too. The one mentioned above lasted for about
half an hour. I wonder when the next one will be.....? Probably, in the
evening or late afternoon like yesterday, just when we're trying to
relax in front of the t.v.! When and if we do, I'll write, again with a
different number, of course, but the same heading.

Get your act together, KPLC. We suffer enough without you people adding
to it.

Another outage

It seems that the latest outage here in Nyali was due to a branch from a

tree falling on the power lines. This lasted just over an hour but, of
course, it continued to go on and off at least a couple of times after
that.

Oh and talking about trees - this will be another excuse for their
wrecking crew to go around chopping them off, I suppose. All in the name
of them getting in the way of power lines. I wonder how other places
manage to have their power still intact despite trees. Or are they
trying to tell us that it's either 'progress' without trees or we go
back to cave dwelling days - live without power, a supposed sign of
'civilization'?

Again, nobody was answering their phones, including the emergency lines.
One wonders why they don't. Also, these people are beginning to practice
impunity like most of the other so-called service providers. Since they
have a monopoly of being the only providers of this commodity, like the
water, in this country, they know that they can get away with anything
short of murder. But, then, in this country, since we have very little
of law practiced and justice meted out, even murder is being got away
with here. One just has to pay the right amount to the right person!

While the KPLC continues to increase their rates to unbelievable
amounts, their services are deteriorating, too. Easy money.....? And so
they couldn't care less about the 'service' they give, since they can
hold the whole country to ransom by threatening to cut us off! They
already know this with their nearly daily outages all over the place.

By the way, what are they doing about sustainable, renewable energy in
the face of rising fuel costs? We have all the sun in the world and the
wind, too, not to mention wave power at the coast. Have they given these
a thought? Or are they too lazy, mentally and physically to put this
infrastructure into place? Or is their excuse going to be, 'we don't
have the funds', like the stuck record reply of the water providers? All
of these people, especially KPLC, charges us an arm, a leg and eight
pints of blood for the power they give us in fits and starts and very
unreliably, too.

Really fed up with KPLC.

Strange maintenance .......

Yesterday late afternoon about 5.45 pm, we in Nyali, suddenly had an

unwarranted outage. And the power was not restored till around 9.30 pm. Why?

The reason I am asking this question is that these people had a
'planned' maintenance outage on Sunday thereby messing up our off day.
While the advertisement said that it would return by 5.00 pm, it did
not! Instead, the whole of Sunday was spent with power going off and on
at least 5 times!! When it did not get back at the scheduled advertised
time, I rang up Mr. Mkomba who at first refused to answer the phone,
but, eventually, did. He told me that after this maintenance, there
would not be any more 'unplanned' outages in this area. In answer, I
told him that should there be one soon after (knowing them, it was
highly likely and I was proved right, yesterday), I would write this
email to all of my usual recipients, including a copy to him, of course.

Why did they have to choose Sunday to do their so-called maintenance?
And after having messed it up why does the power still keep going off
and on without warning? Why don't they answer their emergency phones?
Nor do their 'officials' answer theirs? Does not KPLC have any
professionalism left, anymore? They seem to be joining our growing
number of useless 'service' providers who just exist, but, do not really
accomplish anything much!

There was a time when it bothered KPLC, that their reputation was at
stake, but, not anymore, it seems. They seem to have become totally
impervious to criticisms, do not think that they have to answer to their
consumers and are beginning to practice impunity like many in our
so-called government.

They care less about all the damage they cause, including damage to the
country's economy and have no plausible explanation for all of these
outages. They behave like it is some kind of vital secret affecting the
country's security. In fact, their actions or rather non-action is
landing us in a number of security problems, i.e. danger, when it
happens at night, especially. Are they aiding crooks? And what about the
people who have disabilities and cannot see properly and who might fall,
etc., and get hurt, some badly? Have their thoughts ever turned in these
directions?

The only reason that I can think of for them not answering their phones
is because they have no answer for what is happening and when they
supposedly 'fix' something, it is a short fix, not destined to serve us
long time. Hence, the frequent outages, here.

Will this email warrant an answer from these people? I wonder.....

GOD MAKE ME A TV

Something to read and think about....

GOD MAKE ME A TV

A teacher from Primary School asks her students to write a essay about what
they would like God to do for them... At the end of the day, while marking
the essays,she read one that made her very emotional. Her husband, who had
just walked in, saw her crying and asked her:- 'What happened?'
She answered- 'Read this. It is one of my students' essay.'

'Oh God, tonight I ask you something very special :
Make me into a television. I want to take its place and live like the TV in
my house.
Have my own special place, And have my family around ME.
To be taken seriously when I talk....
I want to be the centre of attention and be heard without interruptions or
questions.
I want to receive the same special care that theTV receives even when it is
not working.
Have the company of my dad when he arrives home from work, even when he is
tired.
And I want my mom to want me when she is sad and upset, instead of ignoring
me...
And... I want my brothers to fight to be with me...
I want to feel that family just leaves everything aside, every now and
then, just to spend some time with me.
And last but not least, ensure that I can make them all happy and entertain
them...
Lord I don't ask you for much... I just want to live like a TV.'
At that moment the husband said :- 'My God, poor kid. What horrible
parents!'

The wife looked up at him and said:- 'That essay is our son's.